What have you done in your professional life so far?

I have spent almost 20 years working with genomics, initially focusing on fundamental questions in molecular evolution and population biology, and later moving into biodiversity and conservation. I started my scientific career in Brazil, where I studied the evolution and population biology of insects that transmit leishmaniasis. I then moved to Germany and Ireland, where I worked on population genomics of highly pathogenic bacteria and became involved with some of the first applications of high-throughput sequencing.

Since 2010, I have been at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin, where I lead a research group in Evolutionary and Conservation Genomics and co-lead the Berlin Center for Genomics in Biodiversity Research. My group develops and applies genomic methods to species that are often poorly studied genetically, particularly endangered species. I have also been fortunate to lead large international initiatives, including the European Reference Genome Atlas, and to help build collaborations connecting genomics with biodiversity conservation, particularly in Europe and the Tropical Americas (Neotropics).

What appeals to you about your new position?

What appeals to me most is the opportunity to bring together the different parts of my scientific life: research, teaching, collaboration and the practical application of genomics to biodiversity conservation.

I have spent many years building networks and infrastructure to make genomic technologies more accessible to biodiversity research. The new position gives me the opportunity to do this from a particularly strong environment in Berlin, connecting the FU Berlin, IZW, BeGenDiv and many other institutions. At the same time, this position will allow me to focus a great part of my research on the Neotropics and to help make a difference in the most biodiverse region of the world. I am especially excited about creating bridges between fundamental evolutionary research and questions that matter for the conservation of species and ecosystems.

What do you love about your job?

I love that there is always something new to discover. Biodiversity is enormous, and most species are still very poorly understood from a genomic perspective. Every time we work with a new species, there is a sense that we are opening a door into something that has never been seen before.

I also really enjoy the people side of science: working with students and colleagues, bringing together people with different expertise, and seeing an idea develop into something much bigger through collaboration. And perhaps most importantly, I like the feeling that what we do can eventually be useful beyond science itself.

Which task could you gladly do without in your job, but of course you always do it conscientiously?

Administrative paperwork! It is an unavoidable part of academic life, and I understand why it is necessary, but I would happily exchange some of it for another day working with data, or discussing science with students and colleagues.

That said, I have learned that good administration is actually part of making ambitious science possible,  particularly when you work in large international collaborations. So I do it conscientiously, even if it is not the part of the job that gets me out of bed in the morning.

What life hack or insight has influenced your teaching?

One thing I have learned is that people learn much better when they understand why something matters.

So when I teach bioinformatics or genomics, I try not to present methods simply as a collection of tools and commands. I like students to work with real biological questions and real data, including the problems and uncertainties that come with them. Once you understand the question you are trying to answer, the technology and the theory become much easier to understand.

How can your research be applied?

The simplest answer is: to help us make better decisions about biodiversity.

Genomics can tell us things that are very difficult to learn from traditional approaches alone: how populations are related, how much genetic diversity they contain, whether populations are becoming isolated, how they have responded to environmental change, and which populations may be particularly vulnerable.

My aim is to bring the genomic technologies that are already routine for humans and other well-studied organisms to the much larger number of species that we know much less about. Ultimately, this information can support species monitoring, conservation planning and policy. A major part of my work is therefore about bridging the gap between producing genomic knowledge and actually using it for conservation and population monitoring.

What should people know about your personal life?

I think one important thing to know is that I am Brazilian and have lived in Germany for many years, so my life is very much shaped by both cultures. I still have a strong connection to Brazil, both personally and professionally, and much of my research focuses on the Neotropics.

I also feel it is hard to disassociate my personal life from being a biodiversity scientist. I love shaping our family vacation around species and areas that I work on or am curious about, brining my kids closer to what I do in a light, immersive and fun way.

What formative experience did you have with nature/science as a child?

I grew up on the Atlantic Forest coast of Brazil, surrounded by mangroves, restingas, and tropical forest, right in front of the beach. My connection with these environments was daily and intense, but even as a child, I stood out a little from the other kids because I could spend hours observing animals, from ants and geckos to the domestic animals around me.

I remember that a trip to a coral reef in northeastern Brazil, when I was about 15, was a turning point for me. I was fascinated by these strange and beautiful creatures and realized that I wanted to understand them. That experience made up my mind: I wanted to become a biologist and a scientist.

What person or personality has influenced you, how and why?

I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the most amazing academic supervisor, Dr. Alexandre Peixoto, who sadly passed away several years ago at a very young age. I spent seven years in his lab and did all three of my academic dissertations, my Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD,  in his group. I really felt like his scientific daughter, as well as a good friend.

I admired how Alexandre seemed to know something about almost everything. He was endlessly curious, and whenever we faced a scientific problem, he always seemed to have an idea for how to approach it. Before university, I had never really had a personal connection with a scientist, so having someone like him as a mentor had a profound influence on me. He inspired me to such an extent that I became certain I wanted to be a scientist for the rest of my life.

What do you wish you had known earlier?

I wish I would not have doubted myself so much, and that I had trusted my instincts without hesitation. For a long time, I carried this quiet feeling that everyone else had already figured out how the world worked, that they were all operating from some manual I'd never been given. That feeling made me hesitant to ask questions, and even more hesitant to admit when I simply didn't know something.

That has shifted over time, and it's been one of the most valuable lessons of my scientific career: recognising what you don't know is a strength, not a weakness. Science, at its core, is the practice of asking questions, of sitting with uncertainty instead of rushing past it. So I've learned not to fear the gaps in my own understanding. I try to stay curious, to ask openly, and to admit freely what I don't know, because that's usually exactly where the most interesting learning starts.